Lesley Riddoch

Riddoch Questions, 27th February - BBC Radio Scotland 1.15-2pm

Lesley’s guests on Riddoch Questions this week include the editor of the Herald, Donald Martin and the leader of Glasgow Council , Steven Purcell.

• Subjects include the parlous state of the media – just this week ITV have proposed a merger with Channels 4 and 5, the Daily Record and Sunday Mail have merged functions, the Scotsman is minus an editor and the Herald is set to announce redundancies. Meanwhile in the USA the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune have filed for bankruptcy. What next?

• Audit Scotland say councils aren’t working together to provide joint services. Why not – clannishness at work or just too many councils? Does Scotland really need 32 highly paid Chief Executives and Directors of Education?

• The Nationalists have gone for “devolution max” and Labour’s backed borrowing powers for the Scottish Parliament – has the Calman Commission knocked heads together at Holyrood?

• Over budget and overdue -- are the Edinburgh trams becoming a re-run of the parliament building saga? And should the project go-ahead or face the chop?

• Google has become the world’s top brand, Jack Straw uses hotmail for government business and the government’s appointed a twittercrat – to get government messages into social networks. Has the world gone online?

Email your questions on these stories now to riddoch@bbc.co.uk. Add your phone number if you want to put the question in person. On Friday text your views to 80295 and call 0500 92 95 00.

No Scotsman column today...but a Belfast birthday treat

There was no opinion piece in the Scotsman today as Lesley had a birthday weekend off. The Riddoch Questions crew threw a wee party for Lesley...who promptly flew to Belfast for her birthday treat. There are some photos of the party/recording of the Aftermath here. And the Birthday Aftermath is available here. Comments, as ever, are welcome using the form below.  

We need to teach our children the value of risk

Politicians and journalists should be grateful to bankers. With their greedy, thoughtless and spendthrift ways, they’ve surely replaced hacks and MSPs as the least trusted professionals in Britain.

Last week, though, the money men encountered competition -- from personal injury lawyers warning schools to ban snowball fights or run the risk of litigation. This is ludicrous. You don’t have to be Miss Smilla to have feelings for snow. Danish writer, Peter Høeg wrote about the infinite variety of the white stuff in his 1992 classic novel and Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow hasn’t been out of print since. Partly because the heroine is a Nordic version of Indiana Jones - gutsy, impulsive, independent and (yet) female – and partly because her daily life, dreams, nightmares and the single event that shapes the novel are all experienced through the prism of snow.

A new Aftermath is available ...in Scots

There is a new Aftermath recorded with Billy Kay and Susan Morrison now available. It is a funny, provocative and serious discussion about the state of the Scots language. Please feel free to comment.

Riddoch Questions

Apologies by millionaire bankers this week have sparked off bigger questions about the way British industry operates. Should the bonus culture be abandoned, do company directors check executive egos or is corporate governance just window dressing , and does the chain of responsibility over HBOS reach the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown?

Lesley’s guests on Riddoch Questions have opinions – Peter McMahon is Business Editor of the Scotsman, Jane Wood is a company director and head of the new business group Essential Edinburgh and Billy Kay is a broadcaster, writer and Scots language activist.

They'll also tackle the Scottish government’s decision to drop plans for Local Income Tax, the Scottish cabinet reshuffle, plans for an independence referendum next year, and the first ever audit of the Scots Language this week.

Send us your questions or comments in advance to riddoch@bbc.co.uk. Add your phone number if you want to put the question in person. On Friday 13th text your views to 80295 or call 0500 92 95 00.

Different worlds, different problems: one solution

Dundee and St Andrews hit the headlines last week for all the wrong reasons.

In Dundee a man was arrested for the murder of Paddy McDade, a Big Issue seller and irrepressibly cheery soul who used to stand at the back of M&S in Dundee’s Seagate. A few days after McDade’s death, a friend and fellow Big Issue seller Lisa Mitchell, 25, died of pneumonia.

Another 20 minutes of insight are available

The missing portions of this week's Riddoch Questions makes it to air on this week's Aftermath. The good folk of Glenrothes were asked about the Prime Minister and their answers are surprising...however the Aftermath takes a number of interesting meanders...listen and learn

Time to ditch the gesture politics for real change

The really uncomfortable truth about the Reconciliation event in Belfast last week, is that those two screaming, bereaved relatives finally shook hands. Danny Bradley was the bald man shouting at the angry, red-jacketed Michelle Williamson in the midst of placard-waving objectors at the Consultative Group on the Past launch. The cameras loved it. And the picture on every front page appeared to confirm what most people still believe – that Northern Ireland is deadlocked, despite the best efforts of the “Chuckle Brothers” and all the fancy talk of forgiveness.